A Salad, A Quiche and A Dessert

Yet another holiday meal, this time with good friends. My contribution this round is just the salad, quiche and dessert.

My salad style is more of an amalgam of favourite foods and whatever that is in season rather than a pre-mixed salad. I prefer to make my own dressings too. My basic go to dressing is a lemon, honey and mustard dressing. This time round, I am giving it a little twist by adding chickpea miso, shoyu and olive oil.

Whisk (not blend) everything together and you get a tangy and light dressing. Perfect especially if you have added heavier toppings in your salad like meats. If you prefer a smoother, velvety feel, add some olive oil. I use mustard grains to give the dressing some texture. But if you don’t like it, you can substitute with Dijon mustard.

Next up the quiche – mini mushroom and cheese quiche. I bought the mini tart casings as I didn’t have time to make from scratch. I just fried the button mushrooms and onions, added it into the casings with some grated Parmesan and poured in the egg, cream and milk mix and let it bake for about 20 minutes. The casings were pretty good I must say. I personally would have preferred a short crust pastry though.

Last but not least, dessert. A maple walnut cake with maple cream cheese frosting which I adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe. This is a dense and heavy (in terms of weight and not the feel) due to the amount of maple syrup that goes in. But it is not cloyingly sweet mind you. Real maple syrup is not as sweet as those maple flavoured corn syrup. My hubby loves this cake. He calls it Ang Moh Huat Kueh (western maltose cake). Perfect pairing with his kopi (coffee).